1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure is directed to real-time path suggestion for a location-enabled mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern cell phones, such as smart phones, are typically capable of determining their position within a certain degree of accuracy. When available, cell phones generally rely on global positioning system (GPS) signals. When GPS is not available, such as when the cell phone is indoors, the cell phone can use local positioning system (LPS) signals. In an LPS, the cell phone receives radio signals from at least three local transmitters, such as Wi-Fi transmitters, to triangulate its position. The cell phone may augment this position with an internal inertial navigation system (INS). An INS uses the cell phone's accelerometers (motion) and gyroscopes (rotation) to continuously calculate the cell phone's position, orientation, and velocity via dead reckoning.
A cell phone may also execute a navigation application that guides a user from the current location of the cell phone to an identified destination. The navigation application uses the continuously determined position of the cell phone and a map of the area in which the cell phone is located to provide the user with turn-by-turn directions to the destination. The cell phone may display the entire route or just the area immediately around the cell phone's current position.
Since the display screen of a cell phone is small, the map from the cell phone's current position to the destination is often too small to read in detail, and the user must zoom-in to see the next path to follow. If a routable path to the destination is not available, the user needs to zoom-out to see the destination and try to determine a route visually.
In some situations, it may be difficult and/or inconvenient for the user to continuously zoom-in and out on the map. Additionally or alternatively, the user may not want to take the time to enter a destination, or, even if the user enters a destination, turn-by-turn directions may not be available. For example, a user may have his or her hands full of luggage while trying to find a particular gate at an airport, and even if the user took the time to select that particular gate as a destination, turn-by-turn directions may not be available.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial if the cell phone could provide real-time direction indicators to nearby destinations and/or points of interest (POIs) at a given location, such as an airport, amusement park, shopping mall, theater, athletic stadium, office building, etc., as the user moves through the location.